An ischemic cardiac disease is diagnosed by myocardial SPECT using a SPECT apparatus. Myocardial SPECT uses a bull's eye map. The following is a method of generating a bull's eye map. First of all, this method generates a plurality of short-axis slice images based on volume data acquired by a SPECT apparatus. In each short-axis slice image, a plurality of straight lines radially extending from the center point of a myocardial region are set. The method specifies the maximum value among the pixel values of a plurality of pixels on each straight line between the inner membrane and outer membrane of the myocardial region (the interior of the cardiac muscle). The method then assigns the specified maximum value to the pixel at the corresponding position on polar coordinates. This generates a bull's eye map. As described above, the maximum values on the straight lines extending through the interior of the cardiac muscle are assigned to a bull's eye map. It is therefore impossible to comprehend the pixel value distribution in the interior of the cardiac muscle by using a bull's eye map. This makes it difficult to determine the risk of an ischemic region when paying attention to a local region of the cardiac muscle.
It is an object of an embodiment to provide a medical image processing apparatus which can improve the diagnostic performance of a bull's eye map.